Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from my home to yours!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah … from my home to yours

By mid-next week, gulp, the beginning of 2025 bubbles up. Winter Solstice landed on December 21^st, a favorite day of mine … which means that THREE more minutes of daylight are added each day forward until June and the march begins toward Spring and then Summertime … and long daylight days!

This has been a favorite time of the year for me since I was a young adult. I love the lights, the colors, the festivities, the gatherings and the changes of pace it brings. Everything! And oh yes, the decorating and entertaining. Nightly, we light candles and all the colorful lights. Love it all.

And I know that AUTHOR SUCCESS is coming for many! The 2025 Publishing at Sea is something I look forward to every winter. Landing on the week of March 2 for a 7-night Western Caribbean adventure, my body and mind are always ready for a week away.

As you spend time with those you are close to this final week of December, it’s natural to noodle a bit. They all know you have a book … or are writing one. Questions for you:

Are they encouragers or stompers?
Do they celebrate each step or shake their heads thinking it’s a folly?
And how about you … where … exactly are you in the process?

During this final week of the year slips forward, this is the time to look back and look forward during some of your “down days.”

What worked? What didn’t? And if something, just didn’t work, what are your plans? Scrap it? Morph it? See if it will right itself? What?

SO … your big questions are:

What are you going to do the same; keep doing–yet change a bit; or add new to your authoring/publishing mix? Why?
What’s worked this year? Why?
Are you going to continue to do the same or change it up a bit? Why?
What’s not worked? Why?
Are you going to keep it in the mix? Or change it up a bit? Why?
What would you like to add? Why?

What do you need to do … as in now … to awaken your author and book spirits … so that Your Author Force becomes your driver?

I would love to have you to make comments … let’s compile a list to share for a future blog.

All of us within The Book Shepherd team appreciates you and what your amazing words and stories do for so many. Congratulations to the authors who have won national book awards again this year–we celebrate your amazing journeys and success.

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Dr. Judith Briles started writing notes to her classmates in first grade … and got into “disruptive trouble” from her teachers. She’s now the author of 47 books and counting, still being a disrupter. Her books have won over 55 book awards and been Amazon bestsellers. You can follow her professional side at www.TheBookShepherd.com where she works with writers to become published authors. Listen in to her weekly podcast: AuthorU: Your Guide to Book Publishing at https://bit.ly/AuthorUPodcast